Posted
by
samzenpus
on Tuesday April 20, 2010 @11:14AM
from the I-got-the-cowboyneal-jitters dept.

A study conducted by the University of Toronto has found that exposure to fast-food logos can cause people to feel impatient and make them more likely to buy things. Subjects in the study were exposed to nearly imperceptible flashes of images (for 12 to 80 milliseconds) which included fast-food logos for some. The subjects were then asked to read about and choose between two different kinds of skin-care treatments, one of which was a three-in-one. Those who had the logos flashed before them read "significantly faster" and chose the more time-saving skin product. From the article: "The researchers concluded 'fast food, originally designed to save time, can have the unexpected consequence of inducing haste and impatience' and 'preference for time-saving products when there are potentially other important aspects upon which to choose a product.' So, basically, driving past a McDonald's on the highway has the potential to not only make you drive faster, it will make you more likely to buy two-for-one Pantene Pro-V Shampoo and Conditioner the next time you go to Duane Reade. One, it seems, is considerably less ominous than the other." I guess this explains why my nephews will chew on their seat belts and try to get out the windows just to be first into the McDonald's Playland.

No, but it tends to put me in a frame of mind that expects to be irritated, and that is more likely to be pleased when the system works as it should. Windows 7 was a positive surprise by those metrics, and it generally feels good and acts right... but whenever I hop back into Linux with Enlightenment 16, things snap back into perspective.

No, it makes me boil with rage and seek out the nearest lifeform to make vengeance upon. Last time I saw it, a bus full of nuns paid for it. It's ok, though; I've been sent to therapy, so it doesn't make me as angry. Just enough to commit assault and battery.

It's more likely that those logos are deeply associated in your mind with... well, fast food. Meaning a certain type of lifestyle. Fast food is something you finish in less then 30 minutes. At least that's my definition. A proper meal 1) takes at least one hour 2) is not eaten alone 3) if it's eaten alone, you must have a newspaper or a good book handy for the pauses you take between the starters, main courses and the dessert. This is another type of lifestyle. All those logos remind you of having to finis

True. For example, are those Jews and Muslims, who will not eat at any of those "joints", affected in the same way as those who aren't?

I know plenty of Jews and Muslims that eat McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and so forth. The first thing I saw after clearing Customs in Malaysia was a McD's, only the double bacon cheeseburger is not Halal hence it's not served there.

OK, most things at McD's aren't Kosher, mixing meat and dairy but in Australia I'm yet to meet a Jew who is that dedicated, most refuse to ea

Fast food is something you finish in less then 30 minutes. At least that's my definition. A proper meal 1) takes at least one hour 2) is not eaten alone 3) if it's eaten alone, you must have a newspaper or a good book handy for the pauses you take between the starters, main courses and the dessert.

Dominos was on the list. The pizza delivery joint.

My pizza eating experience goes something like:

Eat a slice a pizza, wipe hands on shirt (just being honest here), wash down w/ sip of beer, play a couple rounds of civilization or other non-realtime strategy game, repeat until no longer hungry or out of pizza and/or beer. Takes at least an hour, and eating room temperature pizza probably violates all kinds of safe food handling rules, so I sometimes refrigerate before eating (weird, but true).

A couple of hours isn't going to make much difference, especially if you aren't planning on storing what is left after that. This page seems legitimate enough, and it says below 70 F in 2 hours, below 40 F in 4 hours:

Refridgerating your pizza first doesn't sound weird to me but more like a case of mysophobia.

Mysophobia, no, I'm cool with dirt. Pathological fear of food poisoning, now thats me. I've had some simply astounding experiences a several hours after consuming McDonalds breakfast egg-product sandwiches, and of course the proverbial Taco Bell. Could not find the word for that phobia, despite some google searching. SitoToxiPhobia? Maybe just "commonsense"?

I like cheese on crackers, cold pizza is about the same technology but tastes better.

If you are experiencing symptoms a mere few hours after eating, that generally isn't food poisoning. You had an upset stomach. "Food poisoning" is thrown about way too much and does not mean you suffered ill effects from food.- it means a specific food borne illness is present in the food. If it had actually been food poisoning, there would have likely been a large outbreak, and believe me you KNOW when it really is food poisoning. You are very sick for multiple days and usually need to be hospitalized. Hav

The heat will kill bacteria if the food is heated to above 140. I have no idea on any other effect a microwave may have. I know that irradiation is used to kill bacteria on food and is very effective, but microwaves use different waves to heat food.

I've had some simply astounding experiences a several hours after consuming McDonalds breakfast egg-product sandwiches, and of course the proverbial Taco Bell. Could not find the word for that phobia, despite some google searching. SitoToxiPhobia? Maybe just "commonsense"?

The words you're looking for is "good taste". Your body has determined that McD has absolutely nothing to do with "food" and is notifying you that next time you might want to eat something it likes better.

And actually, I've always learned that warm dishes need to chill down to room temperature before putting them in the fridge because the sudden cool down is even worse when it comes to bacteria etc.

This is wrong. The goal when refrigerating hot food is to have the food in the "danger zone" (41 F to 140 F) for the least amount of time. Letting the dish cool down before refrigeration increases the time the food is in the danger zone.

I mean, ok, I can justify it on occasion when you are smashed...you get home from the bar, it is about 2:30am (maybe earlier if not in a college town) and you gotta have something to eat. You call them, and get something that tastes like artificial cheese covered cardboard that you graciously devour before passing out.

But given a choice? Hell, there are frozen pizzas today that are better than domino's and m

Man....then I'd just have to guess the local places there where you live aren't very good. Sorry to hear that.

I prefer to get pizza somewhere with a real pizza oven...not something running pizzas through on a conveyor belt real quick. A real pizza oven is needed to get a pizza cooked...super high heat will quick cook a nice crispy crust, and bake the other ingredients perfectly. I have about 3 places or so near me, all independent places here in New Orleans. My new favorite is a 2 store local chain I guess

Most people have a learned association, i.e. the logos make them think of eating particular favorite food -- and many people are impatient and eager to get around obstacles when their appetite is stimulated. I doubt the logos themselves have any intrinsic power.:)

I agree. I don't see how it would be narrowed down to fast-food in that sense. I'm sure that sports logos, and brand names, and Coke and Pepsi products would all be found to have the same effects if logos themselves were the ones with the power to alter your state of mind.

No, its most likely your mind playing a subconcious trick because you already know about the logo. You look at it, and you don't think, "Hmmm, Golden Arches make me impatient", you think "I could go for some McDonalds, because I don't feel

I've worked for two different fast food chains as a customer service person and there is huge pressure on the staff to keep things moving fast (seconds count, statistics are everything). Most staff in these places are too young or too lazy to hide the fact that they are under huge pressure. Those vibes are going to rub off on the customer and the whole place. Frankly, if you don't make up your mind fast, you're going to really piss the staff off.

I've worked for two different fast food chains as a customer service person and there is huge pressure on the staff to keep things moving fast (seconds count, statistics are everything). Most staff in these places are too young or too lazy to hide the fact that they are under huge pressure. Those vibes are going to rub off on the customer and the whole place. Frankly, if you don't make up your mind fast, you're going to really piss the staff off.

Sometimes people leave their glasses in the car, or aren't wearing contacts, or sometimes the lighting is just bad enough that there's an inconvenient glare. Some people (like me) genuinely take a long time deciding - I will be thinking about what I want to order from the time I get in the line, but occasionally can't decide between two items, and eventually have to decide to be dissatisfied with which ever decision I make.

Of course. And the fact that I understand that is the reason I can go to my weekend fast-food job, at the end of a week studying science and engineering, and take peoples orders with a genuine smile on my face. But the truth is, there are very stupid people out there.

"Sometimes people leave their glasses in the car, or aren't wearing contacts, or sometimes the lighting is just bad enough that there's an inconvenient glare. Some people (like me) genuinely take a long time deciding - I will be thinking about what I want to order from the time I get in the line, but occasionally can't decide between two items, and eventually have to decide to be dissatisfied with which ever decision I make."

Ok, I'll give you this one...BUT, what about the jackass you're behind in the che

Some people (like me) genuinely take a long time deciding - I will be thinking about what I want to order from the time I get in the line, but occasionally can't decide between two items, and eventually have to decide to be dissatisfied with which ever decision I make.

That's absolutely fine as long as you do it on your time. If you start doing it on my time, I'm going to get a little pissed off.

LOL well said. Now see how you feel when you have a stressed out manager standing behind you giving you dirty looks, and some bloke in the kitchen shouting "SERVICE TIME, REGISTER 16!", because people don't realise that they can see the menu from fifth in line. Nothing enlightens you to the stupidity of humans like fast food work... except maybe IT work.

...it's just that having your concentration disrupted, even on a subliminal level, is irritating, which in turn quite typically makes people impatient, and more liable to just do whatever the hell is in front of them rather than giving it thought first.

You can eat healthy at any of them if you try. Hell it isn't even that hard at Subway and Taco Bell. Not that any of them are going to TASTE very good, but from a purely "sustenance that isn't bad for you" standpoint, all have good options available. Heck when I'm in a hurry I actually have found that the Mandarin Chicken Salad at Wendy's is pretty darned good.

You can't eat healthy at Subway unless you get something without sauce, cheese, or bread;). In terms of "good for you" you can go to the grocers and just buy those prewashed bags of salad, and a plastic fork. Enjoy! Faster and cheaper, and you'll have leftovers! And the Mandarin Chicken Salad is really bad for you, because even if you don't use the dressing or noodles it comes with, those orange slices (OK technically mandarin oranges aren't a kind of orange...) are marinated in pure corn syrup. Stil

First off, you can get a ham sandwich with a ton of veggies and no Mayo. It's pretty healthy. Sure you could also get the 12" meatball mariners with extra cheese. But as the poster pointed out, it's not hard to eat healthy at Subways..or any of those place listed. Subway is the best of the bunch.

"those prewashed bags of salad, and a plastic fork."Many of hem are not terrible healthy. They are mostly iceberg lettuce, which is water barely being held togeth

In terms of "good for you" you can go to the grocers and just buy those prewashed bags of salad, and a plastic fork. Enjoy! Faster and cheaper, and you'll have leftovers!

And end up severely malnourished;). Most of those bagged salads are less than 100. Unless you're eating a LOT more for your other meals and snacking, you can't survive on that. Most adult males are going to need 1600-1800 calories per day minimum to avoid lethargy. Most active men can have the daily recommended 2000 without issue.

Those calories have to come from somewhere. Now, lettuce and other such things we commonly find in salads are GREAT fillers to make your stomach feel full, but you have to also add some other things into your diet to get those calories, because you need them. Grilled meats, non-fried starches, fruits, nuts, etc are all good sources to get that from. Non-fatty salad dressings are also fine in moderation.

Take the mandarin chicken salad for I referenced for example - low in saturated fat & cholesterol, and the entire salad prepared with all included condiments is around 550 calories. In other words, you have 1 for lunch and 1 (or any other similarly laid out meal) for dinner along with a small breakfast and you've still got a decent amount of calories to spare for a few well placed snacks and the like.

Too often there's a tendency to say that "This has sugar so it's bad". "This has salt so it's bad.". "This has fat so it's bad.". The reality is we need a little bit of everything - just not in the quantities provided by a supersized big mac combo.

Look at the big picture instead of single ingredients. Find me anybody who is typically eating salads (even fast food salads, and even the ones with relatively mild non-mayo based dressings), reasonably sized subs (ie, 6" - no footlongs, but yes, even with that evil bread), and/or fast food tacos sans cheese and with grilled chicken, and is drinking water along with those meals rather than sugary sodas. I can pretty much guarantee that they will be of a completely healthy weight and will not have any diet-related health issues.

As much as everyone hates to deny it, calories are basically the only things that matter. It doesn't matter if you get them by carbs or fats, if you eat too many calories, you'll get fatter. People rant about different diets... eg the atkins. They did a study of people doing Atkins diets, and they found that the people who lost weight took in less calories. It wasn't about carbs or fat, it was just purely less calories.

As much as everyone hates to deny it, calories are basically the only things that matter. It doesn't matter if you get them by carbs or fats, if you eat too many calories, you'll get fatter. People rant about different diets... eg the atkins. They did a study of people doing Atkins diets, and they found that the people who lost weight took in less calories. It wasn't about carbs or fat, it was just purely less calories.

Ok, this is only anecdotal, so fwiw...

My wife did Atkins, and lost 60lbs. At the same time, my cardiologist put me on South Beach (the only diet I've ever been on, and lost 40 lbs.). We both ate as much as we wanted, and certainly consumed more than I did previously. Neither of us tracked calories, since it's not a focus of either diet, but there were days where I really pig'ed out, and was shocked that I wasn't gaining. For me, I could live with that diet, but really missed pizza (though we did order s

They did control a bit for that; the control group saw a "blank square", according to the actual journal article [sagepub.com].

Not entirely sure what "blank" means, but they were generally being shown a screen full of flashing lights: "participants reported that they had seen color blocks without any meaningful pattern".

Seems to me that they should at least have controlled for ANY logos, perhaps for a car rental company or just random corporate logos. It's not at all clear to me whether they've actually proven anything about "fast food logos" rather than complicated shapes in general.

I'm generally suspicious about subliminal programming experiments, and their failure to control for something that seems obvious to me makes me skeptical.

To me, the most disturbing thing that this research seems to suggest is that subliminal frames actually work.

Since this stuff was dissed as ineffective by a whole lot of sources I'd read in the past, I now wonder if there is some kind of conspiracy going on: false news on the ineffectiveness of subliminal messages being spread by the very people who seek to manipulate the general public through the media.

I'd say both. Ignorance plays a large part in the general confusion, but also puppet masters. Fools just tell their truth, liars insist on their truth. Then there's the liar good enough to fool the wise.

To me, the most disturbing thing that this research seems to suggest is that subliminal frames actually work.

Since the reasoning power of the average reader is shown by the summary's entirely unjustified statement, "So, basically, driving past a McDonald's on the highway... will make you more likely to buy two-for-one Pantene Pro-V Shampoo and Conditioner the next time you go to Duane Reade" I don't see that there's any point in going after the other falsehoods implied the study.

People are both innumerate and what I call "probability blind", which is like colour-blindness but for the way chance actually works. Th

As I understand it, the studies showed that subliminal advertising wasn't effective, but that doesn't necessarily mean that subliminal communication isn't happening. Most advertising is about distinguishing your brand from your competitor, not about creating demand. If I flash a McDonald's logo at someone and they feel hungry and go to Wendy's, I've failed as an advertiser, despite that fact that something is clearly being communicated.

Some of these images were flashed for up to 80ms.... that seems like far from subliminal to me. If you're not noticing an image in from of you for almost 1/10th of a second, you've got bigger problems than a fast food short attention span association.

I think if I had fast food logos flashed in front of me I would be hungry or more likely to buy fast food. I don't think it would have any influence on any other type of product I would buy. Could it be that the test subjects were more likely to buy the 3-in-1 skin treatment because that image was flashed in front of them or maybe because it was a more convenient purchase. Maybe it was the skin treatment they already bought.

Yeah, right. I have a logo that will subconsciously make your customers cough up their entire bank account on what ever kind of crap you want to sell them. We've been working on this at McMahon and Tate for 50 years. We've almost got it perfected. And it can be yours if the price is right.

As much as I enjoy the usual/. digressions, I'd love to get an analysis from anyone who designs logos for a living. I'm not a designer, but I do notice few things that the logos have in common: Most of them have either text or design elements that rise to the upper-right of the logo. Most have some sort of pointer, either arrows (Subway), a slashing underline (Pizza Hut), meteor (Burger King), italics(KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway). Most use primary colors exclusively. Are these elements standard idioms in logo d

I'm a graphic designer and the only aspect I think might influence the viewer is color. What they need are additional studies - sit-down restaurants, non-restaurants, logos that aren't generally reds and yellows, logos the viewer is not familiar with....

Maybe its simply having crap flash in your face...

Considering that the subliminal-message studies of the 60s or whenever were a hoax, I think this a bunch of hooey.

As much as I enjoy the usual/. digressions, I'd love to get an analysis from anyone who designs logos for a living. I'm not a designer, but I do notice few things that the logos have in common: Most of them have either text or design elements that rise to the upper-right of the logo. Most have some sort of pointer, either arrows (Subway), a slashing underline (Pizza Hut), meteor (Burger King), italics(KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway). Most use primary colours exclusively. Are these elements standard idioms in logo